Suburban Holocaust denier all but certain to win GOP nomination for House seat

Arthur Jones is the only Republican candidate on the primary ballot for the 3rd Congressional District. | Marcus DiPaola/Sun-Times

Arthur Jones -- an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist -- is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs.

"Well first of all, I'm running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It's an international extortion racket," Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Indeed, Jones' website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled "The 'Holocaust Racket'" where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations "the biggest blackest lie in history."

Jones, 70, a retired insurance agent who lives in suburban Lyons, has unsuccessfully run for elected offices in the Chicago area and Milwaukee since the 1970s.

He ran for Milwaukee mayor in 1976 and 13th Ward alderman on Chicago's Southwest Side in 1987.

Since the 1990s to 2016, Jones has jumped in the GOP 3rd Congressional District primary seven times, never even close to becoming a viable contender.

The outcome will be different for Jones in the Illinois primary on March 20, 2018.